And The Winner Is . . .

The polls have closed and it was a landslide. Among Big Green Alert blog readers:

• 73 percent said the first Memorial Field night game should be the Ivy League opener against Penn on Oct. 1
  
• 14 percent would prefer there be no night game
• 7 percent voted for the season-opener against Colgate on Sept. 17 to be the first night game
• 5 percent would have the first night game be one of the last three games

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Cornell reports that kicker Brad Greenway is on the Fred Mitchell Watch List for kicking/community contributions. The full list of 50 kickers (15 FCS) is here and frankly I expected Dartmouth's Foley Schmidt to be on it. Although he hasn't had as many opportunities as some kickers, Schmidt has been consistent and accurate throughout his career, is respected for his volunteer efforts in the community and was on the list last year.

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The Northeast Conference held its media day yesterday and the coaches preseason poll didn't hold out much hope for Week 2 Dartmouth opponent Sacred Heart. The poll:

1. Central Connecticut State (5 first-place votes)
2. Duquesne (2)
3. Robert Morris (1)
4. Albany
5. Bryant (1)
6. Monmouth
7. Wagner
8. Sacred Heart
9. Saint Francis (Pa.)

The only member of the preseason all-conference team from Sacred Heart is linebacker Chris Mandas.

Sacred Heart's release can be found here.

Sacred Heart coach Paul Gorham was quoted this way:

"Hopefully some of those close games we lost last season we can turn around and get them in the left hand column this year."

One of those close games was in Hanover. In its first-ever game against an Ivy League team Sacred Heart fell at Dartmouth last fall, 21-19, when a 38-yard field goal with time running down went wide. The Pioneers finished 4-7 last year.

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Given the expected strength of Colgate this fall it's kind of a shame for Dartmouth that the Big Green isn't playing Bucknell this year. Here's another reason why fans might be disappointed: Bucknell's 2011 media guide (the electronic version at least) is one of the first to hit the Internet. Find it here.

Speaking of which, it was one thing for schools to stop printing media guides. It was another thing for them to stop pulling guides together as PDFs that fans and media can download in one full swoop. That's what Bucknell has done and as a media type and a fan, I applaud the folks out in Lewisburg.

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We're heading to Massachusetts this evening to watch Cousin BGA and The Cadets drum and bugle corps perform at the East Coast Classic. It's the closest the award-winning group comes to us in an exhaustive summer of travel that includes stops in places like Pittsburgh, Louisville, Lubbock, Los Angeles, Seattle, Salt Lake, Denver, Minneapolis, Houston, Dallas and Indianapolis. Cousin BGA will be a junior with the highly regarded UMass marching band in the fall.

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That Certain Hanover High graduate is working this summer at Dartmouth's Tuck School of business. After a frustrating Tuesday she came home with a smile yesterday after receiving a little swag from a well-known toy company that had done a program at Tuck. Toys are always good.

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No toys for me today. Now it's back to work on a 5,000+word story I'm trying to finish for a local organization before we leave today. Wish me luck.